Blogs

Lead Poisoning Verdict

After a two-week trial before Judge Weinstein, on July 10, 2015, an Eastern District jury awarded $2 million to the plaintiffs in G.M.M. v. Kimpson, 13 CV 5059 (EDNY, July 10, 2015), a residential lead poisoning case. Plaintiffs were a mother and her minor child who rented a basement apartment in a pre-1960 building in Brooklyn that was owned at the time by the defendant. The child-plaintiff was born within a few months of moving into the apartment and was almost four years old by the time of trial. The jury found for plaintiffs on three of their four claims, including claims for violation of the New York City Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Act, negligence, and violation of New York Real Property Law section 235-b, which creates an implied warranty of habitability in residential leases. The jury found for the landlord on plaintiffs’ fourth claim, for violation of the Federal Residential Lead-Based Hazard Reduction Act, proof of which requires a showing that the landlord knew but failed to disclose that there was lead-based paint on the premises. The jury declined to award punitive damages.